I have an Acer Aspire 3680/2682 Laptop (2 yrs. old), running Windows XP Pro, which, at the moment, is unbootable. I would like to retrieve all data from the laptop, using a Puppy CD, and copy to a USB Stick.

What is the right version of Puppy Linux for me? There are so many choices. Also, is there a specific tutorial, which explains what to do once I have the CD in the laptop?

I have spent so much time looking on Google and using the Search mode here, but I just can't seem to come up with the correct wording that answers my questons.

1) On the BurnCDCC, the lowest is "4x" - I'm hoping this is within the 32 speed range you suggested.

2) Concerning the saving to a file ("pup_save.2fs"), I boot from the CD, then I exit and shut down the laptop, insert my USB Drive, reboot from CD again and then it asks me where I want to save the file? Is this correct?

3) How do I unmount (umount) drives? I'm assuming I do this after saving all data to the file? Is there a specific command I type? Does it give me this option after completing download of all files?

I know this is all so fundamental, but for me, I have to have "all my ducks in a row" before I start the process.

2)You dont have to use a pup_save file. Just boot into Puppy (set the BIOS to boot from the CD drive) and then you can mount the drives from the Desktop by clicking on their icons. Plug in your USB stick, mount it and the windows drive, and you should be able to drag and drop your data files to the USB stick from your XP drive.

3)All the drives on your computer should show up on your Desktop. Click on them to mount/unmount them. Always unmount the USB stick before removing it._________________"We are monkeys with money and guns." Tom Waits

Thank you for the very helpful information. I now have a handle on the Puppy Linux CD, the drag and drop and understand about the mount/unmount procedure, as well.

I decided to do the Avira Anti-Virus Rescue CD first, before I do the transfer. It's a good thing I did because I found the following:
--TR/Vundo.Gen (4 alerts)
--Infected.WebPage.Gen
--Dldr.Delphi.Gen (low threat?)
--Patched.Gen1 (low threat?)

All say "Not Removable".

Do you have any suggestions for actually being able to get rid of the Vundo.Gen virus? Any help would be very much appreciated.

Vundo.Gen seems to be a nasty Trojan virus. You'll have to Google for a solution I think. This is probably not the forum for advice about removing Windows viruses._________________"We are monkeys with money and guns." Tom Waits

3) How do I unmount (umount) drives? I'm assuming I do this after saving all data to the file? Is there a specific command I type? Does it give me this option after completing download of all files?

Remember that features of operations with broken (unbootable) filesystem depends
on many things. If target filesystem has broken bootsector, mounting will be failed.
Also if it has broken FAT(FAT) or MFT(NTFS) with correct bootsector, it can be
mounted but copying files from this filesystem may be incomplete or impossible.

I was able to retrieve files with Puppy Linux - documents - download exe files and pics. The rest I left. I deleted both my partitions, made one big C Drive, and did a clean install. I then downloaded and installed drivers, an anti-virus and the Malware bytes program, updated everything and the laptop works better than it ever has (it's running on 80 gb, instead of 17).

Thank you all for helping me and for introducing me to the world of Puppy Linux.

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